Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128148
Fourth Annual Southwest STAR-B-Q Ontario Hilton riends and family alike have been telling me for quite some time how Star Touring And Riding (STAR) is like a second family to them. After attending the fourth annual Southwest STAR-B-Q, I have to say that I can't argue. There were no lingering hard feelings when some people thought they were "robbed" of the Show 'n' Shine trophy - actually, people were generally supportive of both the "winners" and the "losers" of all of the events. There's a lot of love in the air at STAR, and it came in handy to help warm the event in lieu of uncooperative weather. "STAR's a little different than most organizations," said international president and STAR founder Alan Cease. "We're not HOG. You won't find the attitude that you see in the other organizations. The soul of the organization - the people - are the cream of the crop, and they're here for one reason: for friendship, and to talk about the slow way of life on a motorcycle. And we're not exclusive to Yamaha. We allow any bike to ride with us." This year's Southwest STAR-B-Q was organized and run by California Inland Empire STAR Chapter 109 (one of more than 140 such chapters), and it pretty much went off without a hitch despite the tempera- 54 n_wws STORY AND PHOTOS BY STEVE Cox ONTARIO, CA, MAR. 16 F APRIL 3, 2002· cue I • tures in the high 40s to low 50s and enough of a breeze to make it feel much cooler. As a bonus, there were even a few vendors on hand, including, but not limited to, Roadhouse, Custom Cycle Cafe, and R&J Motorcycle Hardbags. It started early on Saturday morning with a Poker Run, but instead of the usual "get a card at each check" standard run, the participants were asked trivia questions at four different points along the route and were allowed to draw up to four cards upon completion, depending on the amount of correct answers they had provided. Those four cards, in addition to the one card each participant received at sign-up, completed the hand. Pretty much everyone retumed from the ride with all the answers correct (which more or less means people were "helping" one another), and the winning hand was three sevens, turned in by Doug Sweet, who won more than $170 for the achievement. The person with the lowest hand won more than $120. The next event, the Show 'n' Shine, started before most of the people had returned from the Poker Run and lasted through the Bike Games, which meant that if you entered your bike in the Show 'n' Shine, that's all you were likely to be doing that day. Participants entered their machines based on the model - Le., Royal Star, Road Star and V-Star - and there was quite a variety in trim levels competing: everything from bikes with custom-formed tanks and fenders, to stock machines with a variety of aftermarket accessories. The Show 'n' Shine was held outdoors, under threatening skies, which had more than one proud owner gritting their teeth at the thought of their perfectly polished chrome being ruined (albeit temporarily) by rain. Ultimately, though, rain wasn't an issue, and the winners were announced at the endof-day barbecue. The Bike Games featured four events: Slalom, Box Turn, Slow Race, and some sort of ball-through-pipe team event. In the latter event, a driver and passenger would ride up to a 20-foot elevated pipe, the passenger would insert a golf ball in the end of the pipe, and the driver would try and ride slow enough next to the pipe and time it right so that the passenger could then grab the ball as it exited the pipe. It seemed the most challenging of the events, and only one or two couples actually completed the challenge successfully. The other three events were put together as a "triathlon," naming an overall winner and individual winners of each event. A few riders completed the Slalom event, so the cones had to be tightened up to determine an actual winner for the event. Len Barzee won, but all those who completed the Slalom twice successfully received 60 points toward their triathlon scores. Since another four riders successfully completed the 21-foot Box Tum - an event where riders must take their heavy, ill-handling machines into a box of cones 21 feet wide and make a U-turn in the allowed space - the box was tightened to just 18 feet to help determine an event winner. As it turned out, the king of the Box Turn for the day was Doug Povee, even though, once again, everyone who completed the turn twice got the maximum 30 points toward their triathlon scores, which meant it was likely that whoever won the Slow Race would be determined the overall winner.